'Fiscal cliff' standoff over, Obama back in Hawaii
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HONOLULU (AP) — A week after rushing to Washington to help end a tense, end-of-year standoff with Congress, President Barack Obama is back in Hawaii for vacation.
The president's annual visit to the state where he was born and spent much of his childhood was interrupted as he and members of Congress contended with the unfinished business of the "fiscal cliff" crisis that threatened to throw the economy back into recession.
The Republican-controlled House gave final legislative approval Tuesday night to a package that avoids income tax increases for most Americans and delays for two months billions in across-the-board spending cuts. Minutes later, Obama appeared in the White House briefing room to praise the deal in an eight-minute speech.
"And I hope that everybody now gets at least a day off, I guess, or a few days off, so that people can refresh themselves, because we're going to have a lot of work to do in 2013," he said.
A short time later, Obama was aboard the presidential helicopter, bound for a Maryland Air Force Base. Barely 30 minutes after he had finished his remarks he was in the sky on Air Force One, bound for Hawaii.
The president arrived in Honolulu before 5 a.m. local time and immediately rejoined his family in their rented beachside vacation home in Kailua, a picturesque Honolulu suburb on the east side of Oahu. Kailua Beach is a popular place for wind sports and paddle surfing.
Obama and his family had spent several days, including Christmas Day, at the secluded compound before he returned to Washington on Dec. 26 for the fiscal cliff negotiations.
Obama signed the bill Wednesday evening with an autopen, a mechanical device that copies his signature. He also signed a bill authorizing fiscal year 2013 expenditures for the Defense Department.
Obama has spent much of his time in Hawaii golfing at a Marine Corps base in nearby Kaneohe, where he also has gone for near-daily workouts, including one shortly after his arrival on Wednesday.
Having finished a year marked by a grueling campaign for a second term, Obama has much work ahead of him in the new year.
The fiscal cliff deal delays by two months billions in scheduled in spending cuts. It also sets up battles between Democrats and Republicans over federal spending and debt.
The first showdowns will come over the next three months, when the government's legal ability to borrow money expires and temporary financing for federal agency budgets will lapse. Republicans have already said, as they did in 2011, that they will demand spending cuts as a condition for extending the debt ceiling.
Obama also faces decisions over Cabinet appointments, with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta expected to leave.
The president's annual visit to the state where he was born and spent much of his childhood was interrupted as he and members of Congress contended with the unfinished business of the "fiscal cliff" crisis that threatened to throw the economy back into recession.
The Republican-controlled House gave final legislative approval Tuesday night to a package that avoids income tax increases for most Americans and delays for two months billions in across-the-board spending cuts. Minutes later, Obama appeared in the White House briefing room to praise the deal in an eight-minute speech.
"And I hope that everybody now gets at least a day off, I guess, or a few days off, so that people can refresh themselves, because we're going to have a lot of work to do in 2013," he said.
A short time later, Obama was aboard the presidential helicopter, bound for a Maryland Air Force Base. Barely 30 minutes after he had finished his remarks he was in the sky on Air Force One, bound for Hawaii.
The president arrived in Honolulu before 5 a.m. local time and immediately rejoined his family in their rented beachside vacation home in Kailua, a picturesque Honolulu suburb on the east side of Oahu. Kailua Beach is a popular place for wind sports and paddle surfing.
Obama and his family had spent several days, including Christmas Day, at the secluded compound before he returned to Washington on Dec. 26 for the fiscal cliff negotiations.
Obama signed the bill Wednesday evening with an autopen, a mechanical device that copies his signature. He also signed a bill authorizing fiscal year 2013 expenditures for the Defense Department.
Obama has spent much of his time in Hawaii golfing at a Marine Corps base in nearby Kaneohe, where he also has gone for near-daily workouts, including one shortly after his arrival on Wednesday.
Having finished a year marked by a grueling campaign for a second term, Obama has much work ahead of him in the new year.
The fiscal cliff deal delays by two months billions in scheduled in spending cuts. It also sets up battles between Democrats and Republicans over federal spending and debt.
The first showdowns will come over the next three months, when the government's legal ability to borrow money expires and temporary financing for federal agency budgets will lapse. Republicans have already said, as they did in 2011, that they will demand spending cuts as a condition for extending the debt ceiling.
Obama also faces decisions over Cabinet appointments, with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta expected to leave.
What in the heck are the words used here STAND OFF..???????
Are these people sick or do they simply SUCK!!!???
Why will no one work with our president??? Why the struggles and the resistance against each and everything he does???
Stop it Republicans, and stop it all you crybabies in congress..............GROW UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The current PotUS has NEVER worked with the republicans. He NEVER will.
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And yet you see this as an affront to your mighty leader. Who needs to grow up here?
@bobalouie He tried but they rebuffed him. I will have to admit though that Boehner did try to work with Obama but then the TPers even rebuffed Boehner. Go figure. Maybe it has something to do with McConnellâs statement. As well as of course the attitudes of most TPers, many reps, and about all neo cons, birchers, neo nazis, and kkkers.
Party till ya puke.......Spend like a drunken sailor...
I honestly do not have an issue with the president taking a vacation. (The most economical choice of venues? Probably not, but is his "home") My issue is; why did he initially leave before this mess was settled? If had I a major project scheduled to be due I would finish it first THEN leave on vacation. Of the many positive things he has accomplished I think his financial irresponsibility will continue to overshadow them until he get government spending under control.
 @aintno1special All the politicians went home for Christmas, why shouldn't the President? He has a family too, and why wouldn't he want to spend it with his friends and family? Boehner went home, and the ball was in his court at that point. I don't see you complaining about him.
 @justmyopinion Well first and foremost I am making a statement, not complaining...and secondly the article is about Obama, not Boehner. I have issues with the way this entire mess has been addressed and approached by both sides. This story just happens to be about Obama, so I intended to keep my post on topic.
'Fiscal cliff' 'Fiscal cliff''Fiscal cliff''Fiscal cliff''Fiscal cliff''Fiscal cliff'
Shut up already!
KOMO does not mention that McDermott & Smith voted with the far right against halting the fiscal cliff..
They didn't care about cutting unemployment insurance for millions of people..
Apparently they want to protect the high rollers who contribute to their re-election..
Vote the bums out of office!!!!!
@clem77 Yeah that pretty much indicates how much you are paying attention. Not.
Were the whole thing not so laughable, it would be enough to make the regular jane shmo tax payer enough to make her want to slit her wrists.Â
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 @Crook Ofraud Hurry, get your tin foil hat, the black helicopters are coming. Cuckoo-Cuckoo
@Crook Ofraud bwahahahaâ¦â¦. prnewswire and wnd? bwahahahaâ¦.. What did you believe that bircher_news, kkk_news or nazi _news were too liberal?
@Crook Ofraud Where is a moderator when you need one...
@Crook Ofraud
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You are one serious nut case...
 @Crook Ofraud I wish these forums had a button so that we can black list certain posters and never have to see their incoherent babble again.
What wonderful theatrics our politicians have put on. Hollywood should be worried not just because more Americans can not afford to go to the movies but because our politicians are becoming better actors and are getting more air time then their actors. Pretty soon it will be Obama collecting an Oscar award then to be followed by a daytime Soap Opera Award instead of a Nobel Peace Prize. Of course the leaders of congress and senate will get best supporting roles. Our whole political structure has become an orchestrated comedy reality show. I am sure that every politician now practices Gloria Swanson's line "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." as they live in their make believe world. Instead of actors going into politics it will be politicians becoming actors since they have had so much practice already.
Oh~ like he worked so friggin hard~ I see! Man, he's a good actor! As good as Morgan Freeman in The Deep Impact!  And that's why he got elected, twice! With his acting skill, he could fool lots of idiots among us! Democrats? Republicans? Haha! Don't be fooled! They are all working for the same people - the wire pullers! And what Americans just saw was nothing but a well written, scripted play. But that doesn't mean you can sigh. Because you and I are on a SINKING SHIP, which is sinking really fast!!!!
@Alki_Ninja I suggest that you try another country along with the rest of your negative cohorts.....
 @clem77  @Alki_Ninja Granted, this is still the best country, but we need a leader at the top who understands a budget- he's got the inflows part down, just hopelessly flawed on the spending side. It's not "all his fault", but he's not doing anything to fix it. Just don't get why that's so hard for everyone to understand. We're going to end up being downgraded to B credit rating very soon if we don't get the spending in order. WE MUST BE CRITICAL AT THIS POINT. THIS IS DIRE. Margaret Thatcher - "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money. " - we are getting there fast.
We have been betrayed.
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Betrayal is as good a word as any. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I donât know who to credit with that, but the wise gentlemen who hammered out our Constitution were fully aware if it in principal. They could see the quest for power among themselves. Power to the aristocrats-Power to the land owners-Power to the people. In the end, likely to protect themselves from each other, they gave the power to (almost) everyone. They gave every man a vote. They carefully balanced the power blocks within the government they created, limiting the power of each to counter the other. The struggle to twist the new constitution to the benefit of one or the other began as soon as it was signed. Amendments were soon added strengthening the document and clarifying the intent. The first amendment has bothered politicians from its inception. The second was intended to preclude the constitution from being overturned by force. This one scares the hell out of them. Frankly, if it were taken in the spirit it was intended, there would be private fighter jets, missiles, attack helicopters, submarines, and tanks. People would gather to watch the artillery matches and bombing practice. The intent was that citizens could arm themselves as well as the government forces. Check and balance.
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All of us who truly love this once great nation have had our faith tested daily. We know how to protect and defend on battlefields around the world. What we can't do is protect and defend at the highest levels of government. For that honor we try to choose honorable representatives and bestow upon them the responsibility and honor of the defense of our nations greatest treasure. For over 200 years our constitution has stood as beacon of hope, love, and pride for the whole world. Sadly greed and corruption have replaced love throughout our nationâs governments, none more than in our nationâs capitol. Yes the torch has dimmed. The tree needs to be refreshed, and there seems to be too few for that monumental task.
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For almost 250 years our politicians have struggled under this heavy yoke imposed upon their ambitions. Finally they are breaking free. Finally they are grasping the power they hunger for. Absolute power is sadly yet surely within their grasp. The state militias have become the National Guard. The people have almost no defense against the growing aggression and usurped power of the federal government. It may be the sand has about run out. Progressive means doing away with that bothersome old document and replacing it with a âmodernâ one giving all the power to government. They swore to protect the very document they hate and fear. It is like a casement, confining them, and like slime growing on a corpse; they are slowly oozing through any crack they can find. Yes they are traitors (almost) one and all.  Â
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I have a little faith left in me. Just a flicker, but I do hope that when I die, there will still be that tiny flame. May God save our nation, we seem unable to do it ourselves.          Â
 @oldster70 Thank you for that spot on post. Nice writing skills!
Back to Hawaii again he goes! Spending our money so he and his family can play golf, eat pineapple, and get spoiled in their own private resort in the tropics. Wonder if he would have gone back to Hawaii if the country did go over the "fiscal cliff"? Another example of how our tax dollars are wasted.
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 @mdym It wouldn't matter if the president spent his vacation in the White House, ignorant, small minded people would still find something to complain about. Go back to your FOX News and leave the rest of the adults have a conversation.
@mdym bwahahahaâ¦â¦ As usual the repugs cause the issue and then they complain about it. Go figure.
 @flyskiwindsurf  @mdym As usual you being disrespectful and belittling others. Go figure.
@Gaikokujin I guess you never learned that respect is earned. It also appears that you never heard âBetter to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubtâ.- Abraham Lincoln. As usual you do the latter a lot as well as you and others do a very good job of belittling yourselves in your own fashion. Go figure.
@mdym O my goodness...going to Hawaii is much better then the Bushes going to the Hamptons...
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@mdym...KOMO sure got you with their story title!
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@PacificNWRunner You need to stop the spending first. Enforcing the debt ceiling just means that you are not going to pay for what you have already spent. The debt ceiling needs to kick in before the money is spent, not after.
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@CIAassassin 20% of the military now!Â
military industrial complex speech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y06NSBBRtY
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SHAME ON YOU CONGRESS - YOU MAKE ME SICK. I am a single income person who can barely make ends meet. You don't do what you should and you do what you shouldn't! You don't protect all of us with keeping the payroll tax - but yet YOU VOTE YOURSELVES A PAY INCREASE. You don't protect those affected by Hurricane Sandy to help get their lives back - BUT YOU KEEP AND GET MORE MONEY! Congratulations.
Frankly I think all of you should be fired. People should not get paid "to not do their job". There are plenty of people willing and able to "come to the table" to do what it takes to protect the "American Way of Life".
You have successfully made my budget nearly impossible to live from day to day. I will now have to go back to parking off site from my work because we have to pay for parking, start riding the bus again because I can't afford gas for my car. What you did was reprehensible. I hope people pay attention and this behavior is remembered come election time for congress staff.
You should be ashamed of yourselves. You are not - BUT YOU SHOULD BE.
Thank you for making my American Dream life a nightmare!
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 @PacificNWRunner Yeah, that's really smart. Do you know what the debt ceiling is? It gives us the authority to pay bills that we've already made. If they don't raise the debt ceiling, we default on our bills, we would devalue our bonds, and the stock market crashes and the dollar is devalued even more than it already is. Our credit rating goes down again, and we will end up deeply back in a recession. Also, we wouldn't have money to pay for the FBI, judges, prisions, the Dept. of Education and on and on. Interest rates would skyrocket. People would not be able to close mortgages on homes they're trying to buy. Social Security checks might not go out, and we wouldn't be able to pay the military. Yup, that's the smart thing to do folks.
 @enufalready It was obama who made an Executive order to increase pay. it was the Republican House that voted it down. According to the U.S. Constitution the House is the only part that can over ride Executive orders and department regulations.  maybe you should read it. But since you are probably a Democrat and won't give the republicans credit .
 @Maynard G Krebbs If Pres. Obama had not signed the order, millions of federal employees who have had their wages frozen since 2010 would not have received their one half to one percent pay raise. He didn't sign it so congress would get a raise, but the two are tied together. Sometime, instead of spending so much time complaining, you might want to actually dig for a few facts.
@Maynard G Krebbs @enufalready
Do not care. Concentrate on the big things not the mole hills. The Iraq War 1 cost +trillion dollars. 2012 defense budget 924 billion. Here is the US debt over the last 50 years http://zfacts.com/sites/all/files/image/debt/US-national-debt-GDP.png . Yes Obama added some debt to help pull us back from a depression. He is also trying to revitalize our economy: GM, Chrysler, energy⦠What did the republican accomplish with their 12 trillion dollars debt spending?
OK, But snide. Be nice. Be Profefessional.
 @enufalready Amen to that.
The whole d**n mess is coming down. About time. Greed for power and money have taken us here. America won't end, just her ideas about freedom. Expect that if you earn $100,000 or less that you will become a majority of powerless people. You will never be able to retire, you will work at something till you die. You will dream about a vacation, that you will never take. You will want to give your children, what you gave away.
 @SargeMcC Its heart breaking isn't it? among other things.
The only damn thing that "Fiscal Cliff" is good for is throwing a bunch of these deadbeat politicians over and that is what we should do with the lot of them. Taking as long as they did with all their petty bickering, back biting, name calling and rhetoric and still they couldn't get it done in time. What the hell are they good for???? Lets toss them all over the cliff and find some people out there that will work for the people and not for the big money intrusts that are funding these elections. Â
"...the government runs out of the ability to juggle its $16.4 trillion debt.."
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When in the last two and the current administration has Government done anything but throw more debt into the air. The drunken sailor quits drinking when he runs out of money.Â
@al_wa You are so right. Did they ever cut anything?  Regan and Bush borrowed and borrowed...and borrowed. Now like Wall Street they want to raid our pockets to pay down their irresponsibility. The sad thing about it is people are stupid enough to believe them.  Â
@al_wa I don't like the debt either, but you can't ignore the fact that Bush's wars and his tax cuts cost us about 5 trillion of that debt. Just saying...
 @lakeview
two wrongs don't make a right..
What do you think of the gimmies in the bill for Goldman Saches and Bank of America...along with the tax breaks for golf carts yet again?
 @lakeview So if it was Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy why are all the politicians claiming it was for the "middle class' ? What a bunch of whiny hypocrites.  is there anything you won't blame Bush for ? Bush gave you the tax relief,Obama and democrats just RAISED your taxes.Â
 @Maynard G Krebbs  @lakeview And that tax relief, the vast amount which went to just a few individuals, has contributed greatly to the mess we were in. Thank you, George.
@lakeview More than that over all plus the over sold and over priced Medicare Part D plus interest and who knows what else, all off the books and on the China credit card. Obama put them on the budget. Go figure.
What's a few Trillion more dollars of Obama debt to Democrats? They'll continue to strangle the economy with tax increases and bureaucracy while increasing the pace of goverment spending, borrowing and debt.